The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

[Music] Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join us today, because today I thought we'd to a fantastic little painting that I think you'll enjoy.

So I tell you what, let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint this little painting that we're going to do today.

And come on up here and let me show you what I've got done already.

One of my favorite things in this painting technique is black gesso.

And today let's do one that has a lot of black gesso.

And I've put this on using nothing but a paper towel.

I just wadded up a paper towel and just sort of dobbed it all over.

And I wanted it darker at the bottom than at the top.

So I really put a lot down here and up in here I've just sort of let it, just play around and barely touched.

Then I took a foam brush, I want a big tree in this painting and that's about all I know of so I put the basic shape of a large tree.

And now we're going to take and we're going to do something a little different today.

Today I'm covering this as you caught me doing with a mixture of liquid clear and sap green.

Now I've taken and made this until it's very thin.

Almost like liquid white normally is.

It's almost, it's not quite a liquid, but it's very, very thin.

And instead of putting liquid white on the canvas like we normally do, today we'll put, well let's call it liquid green, what the heck.

And come on up here and let's finish doing that.

And all we're looking for is just like with the liquid white, a very thin, even coat all the way across the canvas.

And just sort of scrub it in.

It's that easy.

And with this liquid clear you can make any liquid color that you want.

I think it's better to use sort of transparent colors, but you really can do this with any color that you desire.

And you will not believe some of the effects that you can achieve with this.

There.

But because this sap green is so transparent, all the little things that we did with the black gesso show through and already it's beginning to give the illusion of a lot of little bushes and trees that are far, far back in the distance.

And I think I'll do a little scene that looks like we're deep in the woods.

I really like those kind of scenes.

There.

And as I say, all we're looking for is a nice, thin, even coat.

Now the black gesso of course, is allowed to dry completely before you put the liquid color on.

But we don't want the liquid color to dry before we start.

There.

Alright.

Let me wash the old brush.

And we wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner.

Be sure it's odorless, otherwise you're going to be the most unpopular person in the house.

Shake off the excess, [chuckling] and just beat the devil out of it.

Alright.

Now let's really have some fun.

Let's take that same old brush, we'll go into a little titanium white.

Be right back, let me get a little touch, a little touch of cad yellow maybe and put in there with it.

Now this is just titanium white with a little bit of cad yellow mixed together.

Not much yellow, just a little.

Okay, let's go right up in here.

Now you sort of have to decide what's going to happen where.

I'm just going to take the corner of the brush and begin swirling in some little patterns.

Now the sap green is very transparent.

The white is opaque.

So now things are, things are going to start happening.

Load a little more color on there.

There, and just swirl this.

I don't want to cover up every bit of the, of the green though.

I want some of it to show through.

And in some places the white's going to be so thin that you literally can still see through it, even though it's opaque.

And play with this, you'll be amazed at some of the effects that you can achieve.

Absolutely amazed.

This is one of the neatest things that we've ever come up with.

There.

But you can just make it look like the sun is zinging through there and all kinds of beautiful little effects are happening, just sort of turn your imagination loose.

Let it go, let it go.

That's what painting is all about.

There.

A little bit showing through the trees up here.

Wherever, wherever.

Okay.

Now then, I have several of each brush going so I don't have to spend all of my time washing brushes.

So we'll take a nice dry two inch brush and very gently, using just the corner, just begin blending all that together.

And you can blend this to any degree of softness that you want.

So as you're doing this, step back and take a look see.

Because it's very hard to see your painting when you're right up against it.

Just step back and take a look and see if it's blended as much as you wanted or not enough.

And you could always add more of the titanium white to make it brighter if you want.

So you're not committed, you can do anything here that you want to do.

There, just gently blend it.

And leave some of these areas a little brighter.

When it's all done it will begin looking like light shining between trees, way in the distance.

And as oil paintings dry, they'll loose a little bit of their brilliance they'll dull down just a little bit.

Not much, but just a little.

So you make it a little bit brighter than you actually want it.

And by the time the painting's dry, then it'll calm down.

There.

But isn't that a fantastic way of making just a background that's almost unreal.

I love these kind of little things.

My mother loves these things.

She, she really likes these paintings that are deep in the woods.

And right now she's not feeling too good.

She's in the hospital while we're making this show, so let's dedicate this one to my mother.

She's my favorite lady in the whole world.

So Mom, this one's for you.

Hope you feel better soon.

There.

Okay, now then.

Now then, I'm going to take, take a little bit of the paint thinner and I'm going to take a little bit of, well we'll use a little black, a little sap green, be right back back, just mix them together on the brush here.

Let me get a little more paint thinner.

Need just a touch more of the thinner.

There.

You want this to be very thin, almost the consistency of ink.

Alright, now then let's go up in here.

Let's begin thinking about all kind of little tree trunks and sticks and branches that live way back in here.

Now if you have the paint thin enough it'll flow right over the top of this.

because that titanium white you put in there was very thick.

It's very thick, it's very dry paint.

Much drier than traditional oil paints.

And I know, I hear this every day.

People go to the art store to, to get some very dry paint and they'll tell them it makes no difference, just, just use whatever they happen to have.

It does make a difference.

Really.

If you have a soft paint, you just absolutely can't paint over the top of it.

Because it just blends together and we become mud mixers.

[chuckles] There.

And if you have a little, little nervous twitch to your hand it makes much nicer tree branches.

So just sort of let them wiggle and jiggle and wherever you think they should live.

All these little things.

Wherever.

And if it gets to where it doesn't want to slide easy, all you have to do, add a little more paint thinner to your brush.

There.

Okay.

Now then, tell you what, let me clean this, let's just clean this liquid clear and sap green off so I have a place to work.

Let me put a little of it over there, maybe we'll use it in a minute.

And let's take a little white, a little bit of sap green, this'll be our highlight color when we get to it and I'll just mix it and set it over here.

A little cad yellow, yellow ochre, ooh, we just leave that right there, that's our highlight color.

Now then for base color, I'll use black, sap green, add a little touch of yellow ochre into it.

Just a little yellow ochre.

Now we have two piles of color, our dark and our light.

Let me clean the old knife off here.

And I just wipe the knife on my paper towel.

Today let me introduce you to a brand new brush.

Today we have a half size round brush.

This is a very small round brush.

I've, I've used other ones in the past, but they were quite large.

This one's a half size.

It's much easier to control, tiny little brush.

And we load it by just tapping, just tap a little color right into it.

And let's go up in here.

Now then maybe in our world there lives, just use the brush like so, tap in, maybe there's a happy little tree.

He lives right there, right there.

There, let a little of that trunk show through.

Okay and he's got a friend.

There's his friend.

You know me, I think everybody needs a friend, everybody needs a friend.

But look at that, isn't that a fantastic little brush?

Little rascal works, maybe, yeah why not?

Let's have some nice little things that are living right over in here.

There.

Just tap them in.

Think about general shape and that's really all you have to worry about.

The brush does the rest of the work, just tap.

Just tap.

But do think about basic shapes.

There.

A little bit in here.

And because we have the black gesso under here, we don't have to worry much down in here.

Most of your dark color is already in.

It's already in for you.

Maybe we'll have a little, how about something like that?

And these little paintings will just sort of happen if you just start playing and looking at them, they just really sort of happen.

Because you begin seeing little things that live back in here.

And the more that you paint and the more that you practice, the more that you're able to visualize these.

You really don't have to trace and have patterns and all that stuff on here.

You really can learn to be creative as you paint.

And it's like anything else, it takes a little practice.

Chances are you, you didn't drive the car real well the first time you tried.

But with a little practice, got very good at it.

Of course, the other day I met a driver, I, I think had never done more than that first time.

He almost ran me off the road.

Alright.

Now then.

We'll just use that same brush and I'm going to dip it into a little touch of the liquid clear.

That'll be our thinning agent.

Because as you know, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

And the color that we put up there was very thick, very dry.

Now then by just pushing, see the edge of those bristles now has a little bit of that light color on there.

And the liquid clear has made it a little thinner.

So let's go up in here.

Now think, if this is our light source right in here.

Think about light just zinging right through here, just making all kinds of beautiful little things in there.

Wherever you think they should live.

There.

Don't kill all your dark.

This starts working well and you have, you have a tendency to get carried away.

There.

Something like so.

And this other little tree here, we'll give him just a touch of highlight right there.

There.

Okay, a little bit over in here.

Think about shape and form when you're doing this.

Don't just hit at random.

You won't be happy with me.

And this one, put a little bit on him.

There we are.

Something like so.

This'll be a fantastic place for my little creatures to live.

I have all kind of little creatures.

Shoot I got squirrels and crows and just everything.

Tell you what, I'm going to put on a few more of these.

While they're doing that, let me, let me show you one of my little creatures.

This is, I want to have them bring up a little raccoon here that, that I play with.

This came from one of our rehab ladies real close to where I live, named Carmen Shaw.

And I borrowed him, he's a, he's a loaner raccoon.

But he's the cutest little devil and he's so much fun to, to play with.

[chuckles] But they do grow up and they get a little nasty sometime.

Boy them little rascals can.

So if you're, if you're raising a raccoon, be careful when they grow up.

They're pretty tough little characters.

But when they're babies like this, God's never made a more delightful little thing.

And they're just like [chuckles] feeding a little baby.

The way they just lay there and when they're done you pat them on the back and they burp.

I get sort of carried away with these little characters.

Shoot.

My mother lives with me and her and I have all kinds of these little char, isn't that precious little devil though?

See the milk run down his mouth.

He's not very neat.

There.

Okay.

There we are.

We're just putting some little things here and there.

And work in layers here.

I'm just varying the greens back and forth.

A little cad yellow, a little Indian yellow.

A little yellow ochre once in a while, and now and then the least little touch of bright red.

And the bright red, believe it or not, is your duller.

It will make the green turn brownish, so use a little bright red when you want to dull the color.

There.

But mostly greens in this particular painting, I think.

And every once in a while I dip back into the liquid clear just to get a little more of the thinner.

Just to make it thinner.

You could use paint thinner.

I like sometime to use this clear because when it dries, any place that you put the clear will have a nice shine to it.

It's, it's almost like the painting was glazed.

There we go.

But think about how the little bushes and stuff, I know, I know.

I know, I see something here.

Let's take, you know me, [chuckles] I get crazy.

Let's take a little of the dark sienna and the Van Dyke brown and white and mix it together.

And leave it sort of marbled like that, don't, don't over mix it, just leave it sort of like that.

Get a little roll of paint right on the edge of the knife.

Now then, in my world there's going to be a little path here.

Just a little path right through here.

Like that.

There.

Just start, let it get wider and wider as it comes toward you.

Look at that.

But see how that color just jumps out at you against that dark background.

That black gesso's one of the neatest things we've ever come up with.

I really love it.

And the more you rub this the more it'll pick up the green color underneath.

There, and the darker it'll get.

So you have to make decisions.

Maybe, I don't know where this path's going to go.

I guess we better make a decision here pretty quick.

Maybe it comes on out here, I don't know.

Wherever you want it.

And in your world you decide where you want your little path to be.

And maybe you'll want to paint a little raccoon sitting right out there on it.

You can do that.

You can do anything that you want to do on this piece of canvas.

Absolutely anything.

Let's mix a little more of our highlight color here.

And all I'm doing, once again, is tapping.

sort of give it a little push.

So there's a little touch of paint right out on the end of the bristles.

And begin thinking about, well maybe right in here.

Maybe there's a happy little bush that lives right there.

Just think about the shape of that little rascal.

Let it come right on out to the path.

Get darker and darker and darker, down toward the base.

Use less pressure, barely touch.

Barely touch, just let it graze down in there.

There, now then maybe up in here, how about right there.

This one, is a little darker, a little darker.

It's back here more in the shadows, so he's a little quieter.

Just a happy little tree that lives back here and he watches everything.

And he's got a little friend right there.

There he is.

There he is.

I like landscapes so much, I think, because when I was a kid we lived [chuckles], we lived way out in the woods.

They had to, had to pipe sunlight in where we lived, it was so far out.

And I spent a great deal of time in the woods.

And there wasn't any other kids around and I had to learn to play with the creatures that were in the woods.

That's why I like animals and little squirrels and raccoons and all those things so much.

Because they're, they're very special.

Very special.

And when I got old, I guess I didn't lose that, still like them.

I wished I could take them all home with me.

After a while you have to sort of draw the line somewhere.

Otherwise your house looks like a zoo.

There we are.

Okay.

Now then we can take, oh we'll just take a little fan brush here.

That's a number three fan brush, doesn't matter.

And you can soften these edges very gently.

So it looks they're in shadow underneath some of these little bushes and stuff.

And it's a nice way to clean it all up and bring it together.

There, very gently, just soften them.

There we go.

Okay.

Now, we've got to start making some big decisions here pretty soon.

We'll put a couple more little sticks in and think about it for a minute.

[chuckles] Use a little bit of the midnight black with paint thinner.

Maybe, maybe there's a nice tree trunk right there that we can see.

Paint should be extremely thin, though.

Very, very thin.

There.

Maybe there's a little tree right here that we can make out in here, there, wherever.

And you put a few in with a lighter color here and there if you want to.

Just look at your particular painting, because every painting that's ever done is going to be different.

No two will ever look alike, and that's what makes it so fantastic.

You don't want your paintings to just look alike.

There.

Alright, let's, let's start on this old big tree.

That's the fun part of this whole painting.

I'm going to load a fan brush with just midnight black.

Just midnight black.

There, okay, now then.

With the black gesso we have a basic shape in here.

So all we have to do is just sort of fill it in good and dark.

There we go, maybe a little tree, maybe goes right on off like that.

There.

This is going to be a huge tree.

I want the edges to be sort of gnarly.

Is that a word, gnarly?

You know what I mean, all bumpity.

Maybe it comes down like that.

Maybe there's a, yeah, let's do this.

Maybe there's a big old root that comes way out here in the path nearly.

Because if you're walking down the path here and you get tired, this, this is where you'd sit and maybe you had a little picnic lunch, you could sit there and kick back, put your foot up, watch the little squirrels play.

Yeah.

I like to do that.

I'm a big time hunter.

I take my camera to the woods and shoot them with a camera.

There.

Okay, do the other side of the old tree.

He comes down, maybe like that.

Maybe like that.

This tree's got a lot of arms.

There.

And your tree, you decide how many arms you want it to have.

And put them wherever you think they should be.

And if you look around maybe out in your yard you've got a big tree that you'd like to put in your painting, you can get a basic idea and a basic shape just from that tree.

And drop that rascal in.

And you're not committed.

Trees grow, they're like people.

They grow just about every way imaginable.

Every way imaginable and all are wonderful.

There, now then, I'll go back to my liner brush and put a lot of paint thinner in it, a lot of paint thinner.

I want to make this very thin, very thin.

Now then, maybe here and there we'll just put the indication of a few more little branches and stuff that are just sort of dripping off there.

[chuckles] They just hang around and have a good time.

There we go.

See, wherever you want them.

Wherever and when you're doing this, don't just try to copy.

Do what you want to do.

Art and painting, should be very individual.

Very individual.

We all see nature through different eyes.

And you should paint what you see.

Not what somebody tells you is right or wrong.

Paint what you want.

Maybe there's a big old limb that lives, [Bob makes "rr,rr,rr" sounds] right there.

Got to make [chuckles] those little noises or it doesn't work.

There we go, see, there he is.

That easy.

A little more of the paint thinner.

Maybe we'll have, maybe there's one over here that just goes right on off the canvas.

It doesn't matter.

As I say, trees are so individual.

Any way that you want them, that's the right way.

Now then we'll take a little dark sienna, Van Dyke brown, mix them together.

About like so, we want it marbled.

Pull across and get our little roll of paint.

Now then, this is the fun part.

Touch, no pressure, no pressure.

Let it just float down the tree.

Just float.

Barely, barely touching.

Barely touching, just float.

This old tree limb out here, let him come down.

But see there?

No pressure, I know you get tired of hearing me say that over and over.

But that's the secret to it, that's what makes that paint break and look like that.

Is the fact that there is no pressure on the knife.

It's just like, well if you've painted mountains with me in some of the previous shows.

It's the same principle.

No pressure at all.

And if you learn to do that then you can use this knife to do, well you can do entire paintings.

In some of the series we've done in the past, entire paintings have been done using nothing but the knife.

Now we'll take a little white and Prussian blue, I want a very dark blue.

And over here on this side, I'm going to put just a little hint of blue and that's to indicate like a little reflected light, just plays through there.

Just here and there.

And go back, take our black, and then we can pull limbs over the top of other limbs.

You have to make decisions, which limb's in front, which one's behind.

And you can do that.

See, that pulls that limb right directly in front.

That easy.

That easy.

Now, back to our little half size round brush.

A little bit of the highlight color and down here around his little foots, we can begin putting in some little grassy things that live in there.

Back in here, very dark.

This is behind the tree, it'd be in a lot of shadow.

Very dark though.

There.

And just put in all kinds of things.

This little brush works so well.

I don't know why I didn't have it a long time ago.

There.

See, if we just let all those little things happen.

And this is what begins creating those illusions of depth and distance.

There we go, something like so.

Now then, we can take our liner brush, a little bit of that brown and white.

Some of these larger limbs here, you can put a little touch of highlight on them.

Something like that.

Something like that.

And sometimes you can get a little crazy.

Maybe right up in here we'll just draw a little silhouette maybe, a little silhouette.

There's my little squirrel.

Put in a big bushy tail And he sets up here and he watches the whole world go by in this beautiful little forest.

See, just a little silhouette.

That's probably Pea Pod, The Pocket squirrel.

We showed him [chuckles] in one of the earlier series.

Alright, I think we're about to the point we can sign this one.

Take a little red, come right down in here, and we'll sign it.

I certainly hope you've enjoyed this painting.

Try these black gesso paintings.

I believe you'll find that they work so fantastic even if you've never painted, these will work for you.

From all of us here, I'd like wish you happy painting and God bless my friend.

[announcer] To order a 256 page book of 60 Joy of Painting projects or Bob's detailed 3 hour workshop DVD Call 1-800-Bob-Ross or visit BobRoss.com [music] [music]